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In Xenophon's time at least the king was regularly accompanied by two ephors on all European expeditions (Xen. Rep. Lac. xiii. 5; Hell. ii. 4. 36), and it may be that this custom is as old as the time of the Persian war. Yet Pleistoanax (445 B. C.) is accompanied to Attica not by Ephors but by a number of councillors, the chief of whom is appointed by the Ephors (Plut. Per. 22), and Agis after his failure by ten councillors (Thuc. v. 63, 418 B. C.). The apparent freedom from any control enjoyed by Pausanias and Leotychides, as well as by Archidamus at the beginning and Agis at the end of the Peloponnesian War (Thuc. viii. 5) is also remarkable. We must either suppose that the Ephors, though present, did not interfere with the king, but only reported on his conduct, or that the custom is later and the presence of Ephors on this occasion accidental.

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